Spare the Air free transit program completed

Spare the Air free transit program completed

The free transit Spare the Air program has concluded. Friday, July 21 was the sixth and final budgeted free BART Spare the Air day of the year. The free rides were offered on the first six non-holiday weekday Spare the Air days this summer.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will continue to declare Spare the Air days, however, BART will NOT free on future Spare the Air days in 2006. No additional free transit days are scheduled after Friday, July 21.

Thursday, June 22, Friday, June 23, Monday, June 26, Monday, July 17 and Thursday, July 20 were the first five non-holiday weekday Spare the Air days of the 2006 season.

After the first three Spare the Air free transit days occurred in June, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (MTC) Administration Committee and Programming & Allocations Committee authorized a $5.3 million allocation of State Transit Assistance (STA) funds to extend the Spare the Air/Free Transit program sponsored by MTC and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The new STA funding - combined with more than $980,000 left over from the initial three-day 2006 Spare the Air/Free Transit promotion - makes available more than $6 million to provide free travel on 25 participating Bay Area transit agencies all day on up to three more Spare the Air days, for a total of six possible free transit days.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District declares a Spare the Air day when it expects air pollution to reach unhealthy concentrations, which typically occur on hot, windless days. Spare the Air advisories are issued the afternoon before a Spare the Air day.

In addition to BART, the following transit agencies are also participated in the free transit program:

ACE

AC Transit

Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry

Alameda-Oakland Ferry

Benecia Breeze

Caltrain

County Connection

Dumbarton Express

Fairfield/Suisun Transit

Golden Gate Transit and Ferries

Livermore-Amador Valley Transit Authority (WHEELS)

MUNI

Petaluma Transit

Rio Vista Breeze

SamTrans

Santa Rosa CityBus

Sonoma County Transit

Tri Delta Transit

Union City Transit

Vacaville City Coach

Napa VINE

VTA

WestCat

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (http://www.baaqmd.gov/) is the regional agency chartered with protecting air quality in the Bay Area.

MTC (http://www.mtc.ca.gov/) is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.